


Got Your Back

by vials



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Q before he was Q
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 16:31:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vials/pseuds/vials
Summary: James has an important mission and Tanner and Q are at the airport to see him off. There's only one problem with that -- Q is James's civilian boyfriend, and he isn't supposed to know about any of this.





	Got Your Back

Something that James had learned very early in his career with MI6 was that there was really no way of telling what kind of obscure issue was going to arise at any moment and threaten to turn everything on its head. Each time he thought he had seen it all he was proven wrong, and yet somehow he remained adamant that he had finally, _actually_ seen it all. He also realised far too late that he had harboured an assumption that none of these strange occurrences would happen while on British soil, which, really, was an assumption he should have known better than to have.

It was a particularly rainy evening at Heathrow airport, and everything had gone smoothly so far. Bond had arrived and grabbed something to drink before going through security, and while he had been doing so, Tanner had turned up, discrete as always, to give him a few final last-minute pieces of evidence. They had done that with no issue, walking comfortably back towards the doors, and then everything had, of course, deviated wildly from the set plan.

“One further thing,” Tanner said, giving a slight frown. “Your boyfriend is standing outside in the rain like one of those cheesy romance films.”

At first James wondered if he had managed to forget some particularly strange statement-answer code, before he just as quickly realised that Tanner wasn’t being metaphorical. Following the other man’s gaze to the large floor-to-ceiling windows, he could just about make out a very familiar figure. Small, clutching a laptop case, blinking rapidly as though it would clear the raindrops on his glasses, and with his hair plastered to his forehead by rain despite the hood of his anorak being pulled up, there was no mistaking him. 

“Oh,” James said. “Um. Well, this is certainly inconvenient.”

“Is he here for you?” Tanner asked, adjusting his position slightly so they could both face away from the window. “Does he know you’re here?”

“He shouldn’t,” James said confidently. “He knows I’m leaving the country today but he thinks it’s for something dreadfully boring, an insurance conference. He also thinks I left early this afternoon. I have no idea why he might be here. Also, how do you know he’s my boyfriend?”

Tanner raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t know these things, Bond.”

“You’ve been watching him?” James asked, momentarily angry though he couldn’t quite place why.

“We’ve done some casual investigating,” Tanner said vaguely. “Just as a matter of security.”

“You can’t truly believe he’s a honeypot or something. Look at him.”

“Which is precisely why he would be perfect for the job,” Tanner responded simply, before giving James a smile. “You’re in luck, though. He isn’t a honeypot.”

“A sincere surprise,” James said drily. 

“He is, however, boasting some fairly impressive credentials. Nice school, even nicer university. Very smart though doesn’t seem to be in any long-term employment, which makes us think he’s probably devoting his time to uh, less legal pursuits, I suppose I could say.”

“Oh, Christ,” James said, shaking his head. “Don’t tell me he’s into anything too serious. I’d rather not see him arrested.”

“Nothing on British soil or directed at us,” Tanner responded. “So to be candid, we don’t particularly care yet. However it does make the fact he found you here very curious indeed. Is it true that online he goes by Q?”

“It’s true,” James said, amused.

“Why is that?”

“I have no idea, actually.”

It was probably intuition, because the two of them fell silent at that moment, and a couple of seconds later the sound of wet shoes squeaking on linoleum approached them from behind. Q looked even smaller in the harsh indoor lighting, his hood now pulled down to reveal the dry hair at the back sticking up in all kinds of directions. He squinted again as he pulled his glasses off and, with some difficulty, found a dry patch of clothing to rub the water away with. As he did so, James noticed he was carrying his laptop bag over his shoulder, the black case blending in to his coat. 

“Q,” James said. “What a surprise.”

Q adjusted his glasses and blinked at him. 

“James,” he said, quite seriously, as though he were privy to James and Tanner’s little business meeting. “I do hope you’re not in a rush, though I daresay it seems you’ve missed your original flight.”

James smiled; the tone with which Q said the words proved that Q hadn’t believed him for a moment.

“How can I help, Q?” he asked, just as pleasantly, and finally Q’s eyes drifted over to Tanner, looking him over. 

“Are you in insurance too?” he asked.

Tanner smiled, also amused. “Did the suit give it away?” 

“The briefcase, too,” Q said, before turning his attention back to James. “You don’t need to go to Istanbul. You need to go to Cairo instead.”

All amusement suddenly evaporated from the conversation; James and Tanner exchanged the briefest of looks before turning their attention back to the younger man in front of them, who was standing firmly but betrayed slightly by the white of his knuckles where he gripped the strap of his laptop bag. 

“I’m not sure what you mean, Q,” James said, his voice low, everything in his body language straining to tell Q that if he shut up and left now, they could call this deniable and deal with it later. Q only stood up a little straighter, looking even more determined than before.

“You know exactly what I mean. Forgive me for intruding here, but I think this is important information worth listening to. You’ve been betrayed. Istanbul is a trap. If you go there you’ll be killed or kidnapped or god knows what. The real operation is occurring in Cairo and I’m sure they’ll be one hundred per cent convinced they have nothing to worry about. Especially because I’ve already made sure the airport system has said that you’ve checked in for your flight, so if anybody is looking they’ll think everything’s going fine. And _don’t_ look at me like that, the pair of you. I’ll admit I had no idea what was going on at first, but I’m very good with faces and I know when I’m being followed. It didn’t take long to put it all together. Now, are you going to listen to me, or not?”

James and Tanner exchanged another look, before James gave a slight shrug and a half-smile, as though telling Tanner he was happy to hand this one over to him.

“How did you…?” Tanner asked, still processing the information. 

“I didn’t interfere with any of your systems, though I probably could if I wanted to,” Q assured them. “These people were communicating over insecure channels. Regular emails, which had links to IRC channels I was easily able to sneak into. If you want to know why I looked in the first place it was because I had a hunch, and if you want to know how I knew where to look it was because I heard James muttering to himself in Turkish last week. He always talks to himself in a different language if he’s going to a place where that language is spoken, so I put two and two together. Make of it what you will, but I hope you’ll trust me on this.”

By now James was thoroughly enjoying the look of utter disbelief on Tanner’s face, despite the seriousness of the situation. It was all rather unnerving, how quickly this man half their age and with absolutely no experience with espionage at all could have worked everything out so thoroughly, but at the same time it was impressive, and there was nothing James loved more than being impressed. He also maintained a soft spot for people who could still surprise him after all the things he had seen and experienced, which was probably why he couldn’t wipe the fond smile from his face. 

“I can show you everything,” Q continued, obviously noticing the uncertainly in Tanner’s expression. “I have a secure connection and I can show you everything right now. I can even give you a copy to send back to whoever needs to see it. I don’t mind, so long as you don’t send my boyfriend into a death trap.”

A couple of minutes later and they were back at a secluded table in the bar, huddled around Q’s laptop as he flicked rapidly through a whole host of saved material: copied emails, chatlogs, texts. Slowly Tanner’s expression shifted from disbelief to concern, and a few minutes later he had excused himself, tapping rapidly on his phone as he did so. James leaned back in his seat and looked at Q, still smiling, and Q finally met his gaze.

“What?” he asked, and James shook his head.

“You better hope you don’t end up in prison,” he said, and Q snorted.

“Prison? I’ve done nothing illegal.”

“You’re good at keeping secrets,” James said, and Q finally smiled, some of the worry leaving his face.

“Better than you, at any rate,” he said, and James laughed, letting him have it.

Tanner returned a minute later, flustered and slightly red from being in the cold outside. 

“Well?” James said, raising an eyebrow. 

“Apparently it’s _valuable intelligence_ ,” Tanner said, still sounding as though he didn’t quite believe it. He turned from James to Q, who was still sitting in his soaking anorak. “They also wanted to know if you’re still unemployed, and if you would like to change that.”

Q grinned.


End file.
